Peter Kafta at MediaMemo, poses the question:
Why pay for cable stations you don’t want when you can watch just about everything you do want, on demand, for free?
Why indeed? Here’s the dream … everything on demand - movies, TV, Hulu clips - via your broadband connection. The drawback? Live TV (like the SuperBowl) typically isn’t available via the internet … yet.
Boxee, an 11 person start-up, has a plan. Just use Boxee’s free software - download at www.boxee.tv. (It only works on MAC right now, but is in Alpha for Windows, and should be available soon.)
The NY Times reports:
The most ardent Boxee fanatics - almost all of its 200,000 early adopters seem to have turned into online evangelists for the company.
“Boxee has allowed me to replace cable with no remorse,” said Jef Holbrook, a 27-year-old actor in Columbus, Ga., who recently downloaded the Boxee software to the $600 Mac Mini he has connected to his television. “Most people my age would like to just pay for the channels they want, but cable refuses to give us that option. Services like Boxee, that allow users choice, are the future of television.”
Will Cable TV go down the same path as the late 90’s AOL $29.99 per month dial-up subscriptions? Maybe not, but I think outcome will be very good news for consumers. It will also be good news for fiber based bandwidth providers like Zayo.
If you have a few minutes, check out Boxee’s CEO Avner Ronen being interviewed by Tech Confidential: (Good luck to Boxee … I’m rooting for your success!)
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